La Mission Haut Brion 61, 75, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 88, 89, 90, 94, 95, 96, 98, & 99

A tasting of Chateau La Mission Haut Brion with Bipin Desai covering the years 1961 - 1999. A once in a lifetime event for a Bordeaux wine lover.

Bipin Desai has tasted more old wine than I will ever have the chance to even read about. In some ways, Desai can be considered a walking Bordeaux wine history book. With Bipin’s encyclopedic Bordeaux wine tasting experince, you’d think he’d publish a book. He did. However, his book has nothing to do with wine. “Quantum Mechanics, with Basic Field Theory.”

Desai is a Theoretical Physicist. A Theoretical Physicist describes natural phenomena using mathematical formulas. I’d like to see the mathamatics practiced that explain how a Doctor of physics, that seeks cut and dried explanations for life’s greatest mysteries ended up with a passion for something that cannot be explained or even quantified. Next time I sit down with Bipin, who’s been teaching Physics at the University of California, Riverside since 1965, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

But this time, our attention was focused on tasting a wide array of vintages from two of the best Bordeaux wine producers; Chateau Haut Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut Brion.

For this tasting, Bipin assembled an amazing array of bottlings from both Pessac Leognan chateaux covering 1921 to 1999! Tastings of this magnitude require planning. Especially when Prince Robert de Luxembourg, the owner of Haut Brion is present, as well as the director, Jean Philippe Delmas. Both attended the event to represent the wineries and discuss the wines.


La Mission Haut Brion and Haut Brion are located in the Pessac Leognan appellation. They share similar names, the same owner and wine making teams. It takes longer to walk down the driveway of La Mission Haut Brion from the famous gated entrance to the chateau , than it does to traverse from one property to the other. Yet the wines are different in style. Haut Brion is a more elegant, refined wine. La Mission Haut Brion can have more power and structure. In some vintages, Haut Brion is clearly the better wine. In other years, it would be hard to argue that La Mission Haut Brion did not make the superior wine. Keeping everything in perspective, there are vintages when both estates produced equally profound wine. In those years, it’s a matter of stylistic preference, not quality that separates the wines. When asked how two properties located next to each other can produce different wines, Jean-Philippe Delmas smiled, replying “Terroir.”


The tasting took 3 nights and 2 days to finish. In less than 60 hours, the group went through 2 lunches, 2 dinners, 175 bottles of Haut Brion and La Mission Haut Brion and 3,600 glasses!

Session #1 covered Haut Brion – 1961-1999. My report on that amazing night of wine will be published in a day or so. Session #2 looked at the young years, 2000-2005 for the red wines and 2003-2007 for the whites.

The tasting notes in this article details the third session, La Mission Haut Brion 1961-1999
The vintages included in this event allowed tasters to experince the chateaux in a myriad of vintages at both ends of the quality spectrum. Most producers can make great wine in the best years. But in part, it’s quality of wine made in difficult vintages that help define a property.

1982 Laville Haut Brion seemed old, tired and past its prime. Light in aromatics with muted flavors. This wine has dropping its fruit. 83 Pts

1989 Laville Haut Brion opened with a perfume of lemon wax, fresh cut grass, citrus oil and bees wax. Soft textures were made better with a vanilla, orange and lemon finish. Fully mature, I would not hold this wine for further development. 92 Pts

La Chapelle de la Mission Haut Brion

Starting with 2006, the fruit source for La Chapelle de La Mission Haut Brion changed. La Tour Haut Brion was phased out of production. Those grapes are now included in La Chapelle de la Mission Haut Brion.

2000 La Chapelle de La Mission Haut Brion with an earthy, smoky, cassis nose, soft textures and medium body and soft cherry finish is fully mature. 88 Pts

1998 La Chapelle de La Mission Haut Brion opened with aromas of smoke and spicy cassis. This simple wine ends with a cassis, cranberry finish. 85 Pts

1995 La Chapelle de La Mission Haut Brion offers a leafy, smoke and kirsch perfume. Short and light, this needs to be drunk up. 85 Pts

The Main Event - Chateau La Mission Haut Brion

1999 La Mission Haut Brion is ready to drink. With an earthy perfume fiulled with cassis, black cherry, smoke and tobacco scents that lead into soft, mature, elegant textures. This wine is a bargain for a mature La Mission Haut Brion. 91 Pts

1998 La Mission Haut Brion pops with a complex perfume of cigar box, cedar, leather, smoke, tobacco leaf and cherry. Full bodied and filled with ripe dark fruit, this still tannic wine requires a few more years before its ready for prime time drinking. 95 Pts

1996 La Mission Haut Brion is a firm, structured, tannic, masculine style of wine. Interestingly, that what I was expecting to find in the 95. This is a clear case of role reversal. With tobacco, cassis and stone aromas, this powerful wine needs another 5 years to sort itself out. 91 Pts

1995 La Mission Haut Brion – One of the best results vertical tastings provide is the occasional surprise. Surprises work both ways. Some wines are much worse than anticipated. Other wines are much better than you remember them. 1995 La Mission Haut Brion was a positive surprsie. I could not believe how much I liked this wine! 95 Bordeaux has not developed well. Many wines have taken on a hard, severe style. But not the 95 LMHB! This smoky, spice filled wine reeks of tobacco, blackberry, olives, truffle, forest floor, pepper and fresh herbs. Concentrated with lush, ripe fruit, soft tannins and supple textures, this wine is only now just starting to come out of its shell. While not cheap, this is worth the money. When people start tasting and talking ab out this wine, prices can only go higher. If the wine keeps improving, (and it might)the wine may score higher than its current 95 Pts


1994 La Mission Haut Brion is fully mature. Tobacco, earth, cassis and green olive tapenade perfume, meshed with rustic tannins and a finish that was staring to dry out. 89 Pts

1993 La Mission Haut Brion took effort to find the wines light perfume. This medium bodied Pessac Leognan is dropping its fruit fast and needs to be drunk up sooner than later. 87 Pts

1990 La Mission Haut Brion is an exciting wine. The moment your nose meets the perfume, you know something special is going on. Potent aromatics of tobacco, earth, cedar, hot stones, coconut, blackberry, cassis, tar and spice are easy to find. In the mouth, the wine feels lush, elegant and yet powerful. Balanced and in harmony, this beautiful Bordeaux wine has a long, bright future to look forward to. 97 Pts

1989 La Mission Haut Brion opens with a powerful nose, filled with scents of fresh coffee bean, blackberry, cassis, spice, strawberry, smoke, minerality and earth. Massive, deep and stuffed with layers of ripe, rich, fruit with intense purity. The long finish is balanced and close to seamless. The wine could use a few mores of bottle age to soften the tannins. 98 Pts

1988 La Mission Haut Brion took coaxing to bring out the cedar, earth, tobacco, cassis and olive aromatics. The soft textured wine shows a hint of green in the finish. This wine is fully mature. 90 Pts

1986 La Mission Haut Brion is filled with smoke, tobacco, cassis and cherry. This austere, chunky styled wine ends with a cassis and cherry finish. Drink up. 90 Pts

1985 La Mission Haut Brion – Corked

1983 La Mission Haut Brion offers leafy, cherry pipe tobacco, smoke and earthy aromatics. The wine displayed hints of green flavors with tart fruit in the soft textured finish. It’s time to drink up. 87 Pts

1982 La Mission Haut Brion explodes from the glass with an complex array of aromas including tobacco leaf, spice, leather, tar, cassis, truffle and fresh earth. This dense, powerful, masculine wine is graceful, elegant and complex. The finish fills the mouth with a purity of fruit that is seldom seen in a wine. Still young, this wine will age for decades. 100 Pts


1981 La Mission Haut Brion offers tobacco, truffle, earth and smoky cassis scents, Soft, supple and fully mature, the wine finishes with light black cherry and cassis flavors. This will not improve. Drink up. 90 Pts

1979 La Mission Haut Brion sports cherry pipe tobacco scents with hints of forest floor and mushroom. Light in style, this elegant, soft wine ends with cherry flavors and a hint of tartness. This wine needs to be drunk up. 88 Pts

1978 La Mission Haut Brion is stuffed with smoky cherries, tobacco, minerality, truffle, tar, blackberry and earthy scents. But the wine is not as good as it was 2 years ago, and at that time, it was not as good as it was a few years before that. Ther is still ample pleasure to be found in this fully mature wine, but it’s not a wine to hold for further evolution as its slowly drying out. 92 Pts

1975 La Mission Haut Brion opens with a hint of volatile acidity along with smoke, forest floor, earth, dark cherry, cassis and cedar wood aromas. Huge is an apt descriptor. The levels of tannin that remain are troubling. There is no doubting the quality of the wine, but the levels of tannin and their rustic personality detract from what would otherwise be a sensational bottle of wine. 96 Pts


1961 La Mission Haut Brion is filled with smoke, cigar box, minerality, leather, tar, ash, blackberry and floral aromas. This mouth filling, rich, suave, polished wine is concentrated with black cherry and spicy, smoke filled blackberries. The wine coats your mouth with intensity and rich, round sensations. This bottle was not at the extraordinary level as the 1961 Haut Brion served the night before. But it’s not that far from it either. 97 Pts

Great notes and report, Jeff. Of the wines you tasted, the only one I have had recently is the 1990 La Mission, and it was totally captivating. Just a gorgeous wine that I was treated to at Eleven Madison Park. Definitely a top tier wine that I look forward to having again.

Wow. Thanks Jeff.

Jeff

Thanks very much for a great report, I am very fond of LMHB. I have had great luck with the 81 vintage, as you say, its ready to go and no reason to wait further and the three or four I have had in the last year were very pleasurable. Thanks and look forward to your HB report.

Alan

Thanks you guys. There’s some fun pictures of the dinner here. La Mission Haut Brion Tasting 1961-1999 with Bipin Desai" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I’m working on my notes from the Haut Brion tasting of the same vintages. I’ll have the up sooner than later.

Superb report, thanks Jeff!

Sounds like a great night.

Great notes, Jeff. I had a '61 on New Years Eve that gave me very similar impressions to yours. Great wine which I don’t think is going to get any better. I have one more left and hope that it’s at (or near) the same level.

Jeff–was 1970 tasted?

Great notes thanks. Pleased the 95 showed so well, it was cheap when I bought it en premier…, also have the 96, the last vintage I purchased.

Glad everyone else liked it. I thought it was one of the most tedious pieces of self-congratulatory prose I’ve ever read, especially the opening paragraphs. The wines sounded interesting, though.

Allow me to quote Feynman:

Aside from that, I think the answer is fairly simple. It’s about recognizing the limitations of scientific reductionism. While the formalism of quantum mechanics and field theory is difficult to master, the canonical systems that one learns at first are simple. Take the hydrogen atom for example–just a proton and an electron. An exact solution can be found, though the solution is a bit long to write out. But try to solve the helium atom with two interacting electrons, and there is no exact solution, only approximations that can be iterated. In fact, the only way to do many useful physics calculations is by making certain assumptions or considering specific limits.

It’s not hard to take this thinking out further. If a nucleus and two electrons is a hard problem, then imagine how many nuclei and electrons there are in a glass of wine! You will not find some exact solution to the time evolution of wine as you might a particle interacting with a static field. Physical chemistry and organic chemistry can tell a lot about certain pieces of wine (again, reductionism at work). But wine is fundamentally in my opinion a chaotic system–a wine’s evolution depends very acutely upon its initial conditions and interactions with its environment. We simply don’t have that information, even pieces of info as important as a bottle’s full provenance. And even if we did, we don’t have an equation to plug it into.

In some sense, scientists such as Desai are best trained to know the limits of what one can understand in wine. If one acknowledges the limits of reductionist scientific inquiry, then it’s fairly clear that trying to understand every detail is a fool’s errand. Perhaps his interest in Bordeaux does reflect some objective feeling that Bordeaux is superior given its history, but chances are given his age Bordeaux wasn’t as hyped by breathless marketing as it is today. One can only seek out what is known to be good and follow best practices know at the time to maximize enjoyment.

Jeff, how long was the 95 LMHB opened before you drank it? Did you decant?

…and Feynman surely knew the difference.He was a great compiler of empirical data in this realm…

omg you mean I have to read all that. Jeff not a good post to place in the afternoon. Will have to read this later tonight.

leve - thanks for the link to the photos on your blog. didn’t go there - still not biting…

I passed on this Desai tasting and probably shouldn’t have. He runs these with military precision and the food is always excellent, too. I really enjoy the tastings Bipin pulls together. Some might snipe about pours or cost, but few in the world could pull off what he does so often–a great once in a lifetime tasting.

75 LMHB is no 100 point wine, as you noted. Surprised to see 89 needing even more time.

Thanks for the note and Happy New Year.

alan

Great notes Jeff. 61 LMHB was my 2010 wine of the year. The 61 HB must have been spectacular ( I’ve had the wine, but it’s been many years) Also, I heard from a friend who attended that the Laville HB Blanc portion of the tasting was pretty special as well.

WTF!!! Awesome Notes!!

While the totality of the tasting might be once in a lifetime, looking at the title, it didn’t seem bigger than the Haut Brion/La Mission Haut Brion tasting you put on at Lucques that I had the pleasure of attending. Until I read further in, I was going to say it is twice in a lifetime at least for you.